danielredbeard’s weblog

This month marks my sixth year living in Cincinnati.

I recently saw this post about “America’s Top 10 Unhappiest Cities,” and Cincy made the list @ the 9-spot. As I read the post I came to conclude that it was just putting flesh on what I’ve observed and talked openly about since relocating here. The Cincy natives tend to be a glass-half-empty kind of people. Not quite realists, nor pessamists, just gloomy – always looking to the past.

For instance, I’ve yet to hear of a Baby Boomer talk of Cincinnati in the present-tense! It’s always in the past-tense – usually something about the 70s or 80s. Yet the YP culture downtown, coupled with the cost of living, etc. make for a rather vibrant underbelly of very upbeat things happening in Cincy right now.

I’ll admit that my first year here was not good. I worked as an art director at an ad agency, and that experience will go down as probably the lowest point of my career. No need in rehashing the details. Suffice to say it will forever be regarded to me and those in the know as “The Misunderstanding.”

And as I sought out local resources for that which I had grown to enjoy living in northern Illinois, I was diappointed over and over. Then a few folks started to speak truth to me: That I had to see Cincy for what it is, not what it isn’t. So that’s what I did, and WOW were my eyes opened to what a great little city this is.

Cincy is as good place to buy a house, raise a kid or three, and start/run a business. I can leave my home in Wyoming for a Cubs vs. Reds game and be parked and in my seat within 30-40 minutes, and at roughly 1/2 of what I’d pay in Chicago. GABP is usually filled with Cubs fans, and we call it Wrigley South here. It’s a fine replacement to the “real” thing up north.

The food in this city is amazing and very diverse. The food is the one thing my guests go on and on about – how many different good eats there are in such a small market. We have staple good eats like Cincinnati chili, Graeter’s ice cream, Glier’s goetta, and LaRosa’s pizza, but there are a ton of small restaurants all over the place that serve up the best thai, wings, pizza, mexican, chinese, and mixed foods I’ve ever eaten in my life. Once restaurant in particular downtown is where I had my first orgasmic experience with food. The crabcakes were so amazing, I couldn’t stop talking about them and savoring every bite as I ate.
I could go on and on. Suffice to say – yes, it’s a grumpy little city, but well worth living here.